House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) acquiesced to her House colleagues, urging her to send the two articles of impeachment over to the U.S. Senate. Holding them to exact concessions from Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), Pelosi’s strategy backfired. Advised to hold impeachment articles indefinitely by Harvard Law Professor Lawrence Tribe, Pelosi’s gambit failed, forcing her to do the inevitable, approve the articles for Senate release tomorrow. Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) hoped to get McConnell to agree to new witnesses and documents, something McConnell refused to do. House Democrats claimed they had an unassailable impeachment case against 73-year-old President Donald Trump, yet, when push-came-to-shove, House Democrats insisted they needed new witnesses and documents.
High on Democrats witnesses list is 71-year-old vindictive former National Security Adviser John Bolton, who looks poised to lash out against Trump. Democrats hope that Bolton will confirm that Trump engaged in a quid pro quo with 40-year-old Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky trying to get dirt on 77-year-old former Vice President Joe Biden and his 50-year-old son, Hunter. Democrats think they have a new smoking-gun with Bolton, hoping he rats Trump out when given the chance. But in the worst-case-scenario, Bolton can only say Trump withheld Congressionally-approved aid for Ukraine in exchange for dirt on the Bidens. Unlike Democrats, Republicans do not think that withholding aid to Ukraine for information on Joe Biden or his son, Hunter, rise to an impeachable offence. Democrats have made up what constitutes articles of impeachment.
McConnell believes House Democrats weaponized their impeachment power, to impeachment Trump for purely politics, having no real impeachment case. Whatever the testimony or new documents Democrats seek, Republicans to not think Trump’s actions in the worst-case-scenario rise to the level of an impeachable offense. Pelosi and Schumer hope Bolton will testify against Trump, saying in withheld Congressionally-approved funds to Ukraine to pressure Zelensky into digging up dirt on the Bidens. Republicans contend that while Trump’s actions might be controversial, they are not high-crimes-and-misdemeanors. If House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) or House Judiciary Chairman Jerold Nadler (D-N.Y.) thought Trump took a bribe or committed other crimes they would have charged him. But they didn’t, charging him with abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.
Neither abuse of power nor obstruction of Congress constitute impeachable offenses unless they’re connected with violating other criminal statutes. Schiff and Nadler accused Trump of obstruction of justice for months prior to voting out Dec. 13, 2019 the current impeachment articles. What’s clear from Democrats 12-week impeachment hearings was the extreme partisan nature of the process and eventual charges. Schiff and Nadler spent months combing through the Mueller Report to find anything impeachable. At the end of the day, they settled on abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. Republicans believe it’s within the president’s rights under Article 2 to question foreign leaders about possible corruption before releasing foreign aid. Republicans also believe the President isn’t required under Article 2 to respond to intrusive Congressional subpoenas.
Democrats hoped to interview new witnesses like Bolton, Trump’s Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney or Office of Management and Budget Defense Department Director Michael Duffey. Even if all three witnesses attest to Trump withholding funds from Ukraine, Senate Republicans still don’t think that’s an impeachable offense. When McConnell called Democrats’ impeachment case against Trump “slapdash” Dec. 19, he referred to the political manner in which Democrats built their case. “We know that certain key witnesses haven’t provided any testimony and that official documents have been withheld,” said Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), arguing in favor of more witnesses and documents. House Democrats have plenty of testimony and documents about Trump withholding Congressional-approved aid from Ukraine in exchange for information on Joe and Hunter Biden.
When Pelosi finally releases the two impeachment articles tomorrow, McConnell can prepare his trial built off former President Bill Clinton’s 1998 trial. Back then, no witnesses, including Monica Lewinsky, testified in open court. Senate managers saw depositions but heard no direct testimony. “When Leader McConnell talks about precedent, he’s talking about witnesses,” Schumer said. “Plain and simple.” But when you look back on the Clinton impeachment record, no witnesses appeared in open court. Pelosi and Schumer can’t stomach the fact that they lack the votes to remove Trump from office in the U.S. Senate. All the delays and maneuvering, as McConnell said, has to do with a feckless impeachment case against Trump. If there were really high-crimes-and-misdemeanors, Democrats would have charged Trump with specific crimes, not abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.
